Workboard helps companies see through their strategic plans by using analytics and artificial intelligence on a cloud-based platform called “Active Strategy Management” that works across mobile apps and features a Slack bot.

Current customers include Samsung, IBM, Sony, Slack, Visioneer, 8×8, Catalina and others. The 4-year-old company is based in Redwood City, Calif.

“Workboard optimizes strategy management for quicker decision-making and better implementation,” Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice president at Microsoft Ventures, said in a statement. “It’s a promising solution at a time when enterprises are looking to transform all aspects of their businesses.”

Microsoft said it launched its first formal venture fund to make new investments in companies that align with its own interests in areas, including cloud computing, enterprise technologies and machine learning.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company had previously taken a less structured approach to investing in startups, in contrast with other tech companies such Intel and Google, which have their own formalized venture programs.

“Given that the move to the cloud remains the single largest priority for the industry, identifying the bleeding-edge companies who complement and leverage the transition to the cloud is key to our investment thesis,” Kashyap said last year. “Companies developing product and services that complement Azure infrastructure, building new business SaaS applications, promoting more personal computing by enriching the Windows and HoloLens ecosystems, new disruptive enterprise, consumer productivity, and communication products around Office 365 are interesting areas from an investment perspective.”

Editor’s note: Kashyap’s statement was updated.

Taylor Soper is a GeekWire staff reporter who covers a wide variety of tech assignments, including emerging startups in Seattle and Portland, the sharing economy and the intersection of technology and sports. Follow him @taylor_soper and email taylor@geekwire.com.